Bombing of the Renault Motor Works, Paris, March 3/4 1942

Good Stirling Bomber footage
The Renault factory, in the town of Boulogne-Billancourt just west of the centre of Paris, was making an estimated 18,000 lorries a year for the German forces. 235 aircraft - 89 Wellingtons, 48 Hampdens, 29 Stirlings, 26 Manchesters, 23 Whitleys, 20 Halifaxes - were dispatched in 3 waves, the crews of the leading wave being selected for their experience. The plan called for the massed use of flares and a very low bombing level so that crews could hit the factory without too many bombs falling in the surrounding town. There were no Flak defences. 223 aircraft bombed the target, reporting excellent results. Only 1 Wellington was lost. The main raid lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes. Many records were broken that night. The number of aircraft sent to this one target - 235 - was the greatest by the R.A.F. to a single target so far in the war; the previous record was 229 to Kiel on 7/8 April 1941. The concentration of bombers over the target - averaging 121 per hour - exceeded Bomber Command's previous best rate of 80 per hour; there were no collisions. A record tonnage of bombs was dropped, although the exact tonnage is in doubt, official records giving 412 and 470 tons. A significant tactical point was the mass use of flares and the selection of some experienced crews to open the raid, thus foreshadowing some of the 'pathfinding' methods to be used later in the war. Gee was not used, being not yet ready for operations. The raid was considered a great success and the destruction caused in the factory received much publicity. Unfortunately, French civilian casualties were heavy. There were many blocks of workers' apartments very close to the factory.

During World War II when the Germans occupied France, Louis Renault was faced with a no win choice: 1) Cooperate with the Germans in order to prevent his factory and equipment from being deported to Germany. This would potentially cause him to be accused of collaboration with the enemy; or 2) Refuse to cooperate with the Germans and lose everything when his factory and equipment were sent to Germany. In order to save Renault he chose the former and co-managed the company with his German overseers. When Germany was defeated by the Allies, Louis Renault lost everything anyway. The French viewed him as aiding the enemy during the German occupation. This led to his arrest and incarceration.

In spite of the French accusation, Louis was not a willing collaborator. He wanted to manufacture cars. When Germany ordered Renault to cease automobile production and only make trucks for the German war effort, he allowed sabotage and strikes to delay the German production orders. Work was accomplished only after those lengthy delays and then with high raw material losses. Louis played for time believing that eventually France, Germany, and Great Britain would agree on a peace treaty which would allow him to return to the business of making automobiles.

During the German occupation, Louis ultimately became so demoralized over not being allowed to run his business as he wished that he ceased his long-time habit of patrolling his factories. Instead he locked himself in his office, reportedly doing nothing. In actuality he was defying the German prohibition on the development of a new automobile. With the assistance of Fernand Picard he secretly designed and built a prototype of the 4 CV, a cheap-to-produce and economical-to-run small car in anticipation of the post-war years. Louis believed that there would be a significant demand for an economical automobile during the recovery years when people had little money to purchase and operate larger cars.

Louis Renault was right about the 4 CV, but did not live to see his small car produced. The R.A.F. bombed his factories leaving over 80% of them in ruins. With the Allied liberation of France, Louis was imprisoned in September of 1944 on charges of collaboration with the enemy and died there under mysterious circumstances on October 24, 1944. The French government took over his factories and appointed a lawyer, Pierre Lefaucheux, as the administrator. On January 16, 1945, the company was nationalized under the name Regi Nationale des Usines Renault (RNUR) incorporating all of the worldwide business assets of Renault. The French government represented that the company was free to act as a non-governmental entity even though it was now owned by the government.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Short
• Stirling
• bomber
• Billancourt
• Renault
• Motor
• Works
• ww2
• aviation
• history

[andywarh0l]

My comment still stands that the French were unfortunately unwilling to give their thanks to the British after the war. What about Admiral Darlan, who was so anti-British he refused to give up his Mediterranean fleet to them, so that, rather than have them fall into Nazi hands the British were forced to shell the French fleet- what a waste of French lives, and all for Gallic pride- answer that one!

[2007Colonial]

Great shots of the Stirling, a very underrated bomber that was hobbled by the boffins in the air ministry, who would expect a 35 ton plane with 6,000 HP to climb to 25,000' when its wings were on 99' long, or to take off on a timely basis fully loaded, laws of lift and loading cannot be ignored! Still it did valiant service and was very manuverable and able to defend itself.

[randrianabel]

by the way,after the war,renault producted the 4cv.

The first 4cv series were painted in yellow,and the same yellow used by the africa korps....

[hollowayranger]

The stirling was our first 4 engine heavy bomber and many mistakes were made but she did us proud and those mistakes were learnt from and the halifax/ lancaster were born,i think the frence find it so hard to accept as it was such a great SHAME for them ,they had the biggest army best tank and fighter and yet in the space of just a few weeks they were beaten,we didnt do much better and got out of france just in time to save europe for without us america would never have got involved!

[grahamwinch]

according to my dads logbook it was his aircraft that hit the gasometer.

[TheMadNorsky]

@andywarh0l the British ultimatum to the French fleet was so poorly chosen for wording, that the French actually had no choice but to refuse. It was not so much an anti-British thing, as it was poorly executed diplomatic wording and efforts by the British to neutralize the French fleet at any cost. As things eventually turned out, the French were as good as their word regarding their fleet, as they scuttled it all at Toulon in 1943 to avoid having the Germans acquire it.

[MrGoldsable]

The French have hated us since Waterloo and Trafalgar, not to mention Agincourt.

[MrBEB123]

The Allies ran a very successful anti-White bombing campaign.

[voldpilot]

why do we always get those awful fake engine sounds that are nothing like the sound of those beautiful Hercules radials - it sounds like an amplified hive of bees !

[Piss4Pangloss]

TheMrPangloss Nazi Apologist Twitter the freak

[pramboy09]

@dadsdaisy lets not forget also the russians were allied with germany at the start of the war and were involved in the invasion of poland and wanted share of captured eastern europe, in fact jews from all over were also sent to russia to force labour camps and worse, of course all changed in 1941!